Shelf bracket



June 13, 1%? L.L.$M1TH ETAL 3,325,130

SHELF BRACKET Filed March 12, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

flNVENTORS LESTER L.SM|TH FRANK E. RANDALL BY M, 9m, (34am 4* June 13, 1967 L. L. SMITH ETAL 3,325,130.

SHELF BRACKET Filed March 12, 1965 "llllllll INVENTORS LESTER L.SMITH BY FRANK E. RANDALL 44/ 40 Wfim, fi/wwe/b $15 United States Patent 3,325,130 SHELF BRACKET Lester L. Smith and Frank E. Randall, Peoria, 111.; said Randall assignor to said Smith Filed Mar. 12, 1965, Ser. No. 439,337 1 Claim. (Cl. 248--247) This invention relates to a shelf bracket made of sheet material, and particularly to a reinforcing means therefor.

It has been proposed to make brackets for shelving, or the like, from two metal sheets superposed one upon the other and suitably connected together by rivets, or the like, to provide, in addition to the increased strength of a two-ply construction, a simple means for forming diverging attaching flanges along the vertical edges of the bracket. Similarly, the two-ply construction makes possible the separation of the upper edges of the two sheets from one another to provide a wider bearing area for a shelf to be supported by the bracket and to stiffen the bracket in a horizontal plane. The remaining edges of the two plies have generally been left in a natural state so that where the bracket is triangular in shape, the lower inclined edge formed by the hypotenuse of the triangle was exposed in a relatively sharp and unreinforced condition. The sharp condition of the edges can, of course, be relieved by grinding the edges after the sheets have been assembled and secured together, but this introduces an additional operation which it would be desirable to eliminate, and furthermore, does not provide the necessary reinforcement.

An object of this invention is to provide a two-ply construction for a support member, such as a bracket, wherein the exposed edges of the two plies are shaped to stiffen the support member thereat and the edge regions are protected by relatively smoothly rounded surfaces to improve the appearance of the edge regions and to lessen the hazard of injury from sharpedges to a user of the support bracket.

A more specific object of this invention is to provide a cover for at least one of the exposed edges of a two-ply support construction, said cover being integral with the edge of the other ply.

A further specific object of this invention is the provision of a two-ply construction for a support, such as a wall bracket, wherein the edge regions exposed to the interior of a closet or the like, are flanged to provide stiffness thereat, the exposed edges of the flanges being in turn covered by a smoothly rounded self-supporting sheet made of another and softer material.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention when taken together with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one form of the bracket of this invention, taken from below and to one side of the bracket;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the bracket of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a forward portion of the bracket of FIG. 2 taken along lines 3-3 of FIG. 2 and looking in the direction of the arrows at the end thereof;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a modification of the bracket of FIG. 1 taken from below and to one side of the bracket;

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the bracket of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary, greatly enlarged cross-section of the bracket of FIG. 5 taken along lines 66 thereof and looking in the direction of the arrows at the ends thereof; and

3,325,130 Patented June 13, 1967 FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view through the cover for the edges of the bracket of FIG. 5 showing the cover in its natural, uninstalled condition.

Referring now to the drawings for a detailed description of the preferred embodiments shown therein, and particularly to FIGS. 1 and 3, the bracket is comprised of two sheets of relatively stiff sheet (rigid) material, 10 and 11, which are appropriately secured together by rivets 12 or other suitable fasteners. The rigid material may be ordinary sheet metal of appropriate gauge for the stresses to be impressed thereon, or they may be sheet aluminum or other material which may be readily cut, punched and formed. Said sheets 10 and 11 are not identical but are of approximately the same triangular shape and size. Sheet 10 has a top edge region 13 which in the installed state is substantially horizontal, a rear edge region 14 disposed substantially at right angles to the top edge region 13, a bottom sloping region 15 (FIG. 3) which forms in effect the hypotenuse of a triangle, and a very short front edge region 16 formed by cutting off the otherwise sharp forward point of the triangle which, strictly speaking, becomes a trapezoid when the said apex of the triangle is cut off.

Edge region 13 is offset slightly from the plane of sheet 10, as shown in FIG. 3, by a double-bend 17. The bottom edge region 15 is substantially flat and straight. A laterally extending flange 18 is formed at the end of edge region 14 and is provided with openings 19 and 20 through which screws or the like may be passed to secure the flange 18 to a wall. The upper region 21 of flange 18 is offset forwardly from the plane of said flange by a double-bend 22 and provides a resilient resistance to the fastener passing through opening 19. A rod support 23 is formed in sheet 10 near the forward edge thereof, said rod support comprising tabs 24 and 25 offset from the plane of sheet 10 and serving to locate the rod, or the like, in a fore-and-aft direction, and a tab 26 extending horizontally from sheet 10 and constituting the bottom support for the rod, or the like.

The top edge region 27 of sheet 11 is offset from the plane of said sheet by a double-bend 28 extending horizontally across said upper region and in a direction opposite to that of double-bend 17, so that the one may be said to be of the opposite hand to the other. The offset top edge regions 13 and 27 form between them a space 29 into which may be inserted locating tangs for a shelf or the like (not shown). The double-bends 17 and 28 also perform the function of stiffening their respective edge regions 13 and 27. A flange 30 (FIG. 1) extends laterally from the rear vertical edge region of sheet 11 and is substantially parallel to the edge region 14 of sheet 10. Said flange 30 is identical in form to flange 18 except that it extends in the opposite direction therefrom.

The bottom edge region of sheet 11 differs considerably from the bottom edge region 15 of sheet 10 in that the former is specially formed to constitute a stiffening means for the lower or bottom regions of the bracket while at the same time providing a smoothly rounded surface for protecting the user of the bracket from the sharp edges of the bottom region 15 of sheet 10, as well as from the sharp edges of the bottom region of sheet 11.

Referring particularly to FIG. 3, the bottom edge region 31 of sheet 11 is curled through substantially 360 and passes completely around the edge region 15 of sheet 10 and into contact with the exposed surface of sheet 10. The precise geometric figure described by .a cross-section taken through the edge region 31 is not material to this invention other than that the cross-section shall have no sharp edges. In addition to the two functions of protecting or covering the edge 15 of sheet 10 and stiffening the lower edge region of sheet 11 as well as that of sheet 10, the bottom edge region 31 also constitutes a clamp for firmly holding the bottom edge regions of the sheets 10 and 11 together. It may be noted, for example, that no rivets are required along the bottom edge regions of the bracket.

In the form shown in FIGS. 4 and the bracket is again comprised of tWo sheets 32 and 33 of rigid material with top edge regions 34 offset and separated in the same'manner as top edge regions 13 and 27 of the FIG. 1 form, and with flanges 36 and 37 extending laterally from the rear vertical edge regions 38 thereof in the same manner asin flanges '18 and 30 of the FIG. 1 form. For ornamental or other reasons, the bottom edge regions of the sheets 32 and 33 are curved, as shown at 39 in FIG. 5, so that it will be substantially impossible to form a curled edge at the bottom of one of said sheets 32-33 in the manner of curled edge 31 on sheet 11 of FIG. 1. The stiffening of the bottom edge region therefor is accomplished by forming flanges 40 and 41 (FIG. 6) extending in opposite directions from the bottom edge regions of the sheets 32 and 33, said flanges following the curvature 39 desired for the bottom edge regions of the bracket of the FIG. 4 form. Said flanges, however, result in sharp edges 42 and 43, which must be covered and perhaps made more attractive.

The concealment of the edges 42 and 43 is accomplished with the aid of an extruded relatively soft plastic trim strip 44 which is so formed as to slip over the diverging flanges 40 and 41 and to be held frictionally thereon. The material of the trim strip may be a vinyl plastic or any similar flexible yet tough material, such as rubber or the like. Said trim strip 41, as shown in FIG. 7, is formed with a generally flat section 45 which is thicker at its central regions than at its ends 46 and 47, and with sides 48 and 49 extending upwardly and then inwardly to terminate in spaced end regions 50 and 51 as shown in FIG. 7. Said end regions 50 and 51 are enlarged to provide additional stiffness thereat and to confine the bending of the section to substantially thesides 48 and 49. The gap between the ends 50 and 51 is slightly lessthan the combined thickness of the sheets 32 and 33, and the smallest space between the ends 50, 51 and the upper surface 52 of the central region 45 is similarly less than the thickness of each of the flanges 40 and 41. Thus trim strip 44, in its installed condition as shown in FIG. 6, is distended laterally as well as vertically to provide a frictional force between the trim strip and the flanges and side surfaces of'the sheets 32 and 33 whereby said trim strip is frictionally held in place on the bracket.

Trim strip 44 is assembled with respect to the bracket by sliding said trim strip edgewise over the flanges 40 and 41. Prior to such assembly, however, it is necessary to rivet the sheets 32 and 33 together, and it may be noted that in the FIG. 4 form additional rivets 55 may be required to hold said sheets together at the bottom regions of the bracket.

Thus in the foregoing preferred embodiments of this invention a sturdy bracket has been formed from sheet material, the exposed and normally visible edges of which are protected and concealed by a smoothly rounded surface which in one form rigidifies the lower edge regions of the bracket as well as beautifies and conceals it, and in another form permits the use-of any desired ornamental contour for the lower edge region of the bracket while at the same time providing the needed protection.

It is thus understood that the foregoing description is merely illustrative of further embodiments of this invention and that the scope of this invention is'not to be limited thereto but is to be determine-d by the appended claim.

We claim:

A shelf bracket comprising two separate relatively thin plies of metal, each of substantially triangmlar shape having oppositely offset top edge regions, oppositely bent rear attaching flange regions, and a third edge region connecting the ends of the top and rear edge regions, said offset top edge regions defining a slot into which a shelf tab or the like may be inserted, means for securing said plies together with their corresponding edge regions aligned with one another, and means on the said third edge region on one ply and substantially coextensive therewith extending around the third edge region of the other ply in close proximity to the edge thereof and forming a protective cover therearound, said last-mentioned means in transverse section comprising a circle bisected by the third edge region of the other ply.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 585,431 6/1897 Corscaden 248-248 1,720,484 7/1929 Lantz 211- X 2,463,110 3/1949 Johnson 248-224 X 2,685,372 8/1954 Palaith 21l135 3,110,066 11/1963 Ward et a1 52716 X FOREIGN PATENTS 5,681 1907 Great Britain.

OTHER REFERENCES Kalfuss: German printed application No. P103003v/ 37d, printed Nov. 15, 1956.

CHANCELLOR E. HARRIS, Primary Examiner.

CLAUDE A. LE ROY, Examiner.

R. P. SEITTER, Assistant Examiner. 

